Fall means many things: back to school, a slew of pumpkin-flavored treats, corn mazes, hay rides, and golden-colored leaves and flowers. This fall, Homestead Gardens–in both locations of Severna Park and Davidsonville–puts on a fall festival that stretches across a few weekends. This festival covers all the fall essentials mentioned above (minus the back to school part) in addition to many more. Both kids and adults can be entertained with this autumn fun that’s free. We talked with Homestead’s marketing guy, Randy Lentz, for more on the entertainment; see below.

The fall festival at Homestead Gardens has been happening for a while now, carrying over the same entertainment from year to year. If you’ve been to the fall festival before, you know of the old staples: straw mazes, pony rides, corn mazes, and hay rides. Homestead will also bring back the pumpkin express, which Lentz describes as “a tractor pulling a bunch of wheeled oil barrels around like a train.” There will be an underground slide, apple slingshot, Chick’n Pick’n, face painting, pumpkin bowling, pumpkin painting, Plinko, and the jumping pillow. All these games and activities are kid-friendly.

Lentz explains that new this year is “The Homestead Barnyard,” a place for kids and adults to interact with barnyard animals. A familiar face, Navy’s mascot Bill, will be at the barnyard for the celebration too!

Homestead’s fall festival will also have enjoyable things to do for the selfless parents who cart around their kids. “We are going to have live music, food, beer, a reptile show, Raptors eye, and various workshops and seminars,” says Lentz. Another parent plus–about 140 parking spaces have been added to the parking lot at Davidsonville’s Homestead Gardens, which means ease of parking.

At the Severna Park Homestead Gardens, parents and adults can enjoy more adult-friendly workshops. This location will not feature as much entertainment as the Davidsonville location, but will have workshops and even pet events perfect for adults.

Admission to the festival is free, in addition to the seminars. The activities, rides, and most of the attractions cost a small fee. Finally, the food and beer can be purchased as well.

Dates for the festival include:

– September 28
– September 29
– October 5
– October 6
– October 12
– October 13
– October 19
– October 20
– October 26
– October 27

Each day the festival is open (on weekends only), the hours of entertainment are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, visit www.homesteadgardens.com or call 410-798-5000 (Davidsonville) or 410-384-7966 (Severna Park).